First Impressions 1-4
by Twin Shades
Summary: Duo impresses a fire-lizard, and oz tries to get it back. This contains yaoi, but no lemon...hey, don't boo me like that!


First Impressions  
Disclaimer-not mine, theirs  
Warning-Yaoi, 1X2  
Beta-ed by Silvara  
  
pt.1  
Duo regained consciousness slowly. His head was pounding. *Note to self: never drink again. * Suddenly, Duo felt as though he was being watched. He did a quick inventory of available weapons. Two guns, on half full, one knife, and one heavily damaged gundam.  
Slowly, he opened his eyes, and had to close them because of the glare of the sun. More cautiously, he reopened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a tiny golden lizard hovering over him. He sat up quickly, and with a protesting squawk, it disappeared.   
Duo shook his head. *I must've hit my head harder than I thought. * He groaned when he saw Deathscythe. The damage would take weeks to repair. After looking over the damage, Duo decided there was only one logical choice of action: Contact Heero and get help.  
It didn't take him very long to find his laptop. It took him slightly longer to extract it from the wreckage. Although, once accomplished, the laptop loaded easily. He got a message out to Heero with minimal trouble.  
Once again, Duo felt those alien eyes on his back. Slower this time, Duo turned around to see the dragon hovering right behind him, at about eye level. Duo blinked, and when she didn't disappear, rubbed his eyes and blinked again. *Oh. Oh my* This time, she hung around long enough for Duo to get the details. She was a uniform gold from head to toe (or talon, actually). The membrane between her wing fingers and the ridges on her back were a slightly darker shade. And her eyes-he got caught in her eyes. Twin jewels that sparkled in every shade of blue and green stared at him from her face.  
Suddenly, he felt so incredibly hungry. Like he was going to faint if he didn't eat soon. Like he hadn't had anything to eat in months. The little dragon in front of him crooned piteously.   
"Hungry, are we? I think I have something." Duo crossed over to his gundam. In a very short amount of time, he found his emergency supplies, a.k.a. his junkfood stash. He opened a bag of Cheetos and sat down to eat, waiting for his companion's reaction.  
He didn't have long to wait. As soon as she saw the food, she was right in his face, begging for something, *anything* to eat. Duo held out some Cheetos for her consumption. They were gone before he could blink. Duo grinned.  
"Want some more?" Duo felt a positive emotion, followed by more hunger, and affection. Eventually, her hunger was sated. It took all of his Cheetos, half of his Doritos, and three bags of Sun Chips.   
Finally done eating, she curled up on his shoulder. Startled, Duo tried to turn his neck to see what she was doing. She blinked at him. *Okay, I have a dragon on my shoulder. Why do I have a dragon on my shoulder?*  
Duo got a picture in his mind. It was, he assumed, an Oz laboratory. Was it from the little dragon?  
/Fire-lizard\  
/What the hell?\  
/Called us fire-lizards\  
"You belong to Oz?"  
/No. Got away. No more Oz. Now Duo.\  
"How the hell do you know my name?"  
/I know. No know how. Just do.\  
"You don't know how, not no know how. Great, now I'm correcting a drag-excuse me, fire-lizard's grammar."  
/?\  
"Now what? What the hell am I going to do with a...a damn fire-lizard?"  
/grin\  
Duo glared at her, then was caught off-guard by a yawn. "I don't know about you, Shinigami, but I'm tired. We can figure it out later, ne?"  
/agree\  
"'Night Shin-chan."  
/Night? But the sun is up!\  
"Go to bed, Shinigami."  
/Oh. Okay. 'Night.\  
~*~*~  
  
The sound of a snapping tree woke the newly christened Shinigami up from her nap. She peeked out from behind her Duo-love's hair and saw two boys approaching. One had light hair and blue eyes. The other had brown hair and a green eye. Odd. Don't people normally have two eyes?  
The two saw her Duo-love curled against the tree. Suddenly, they rushed over. Startled, Shinigami went between. She watched as they picked up her Duo-love and took him to their big machines. She hissed under her breath. However, they sorta matched the images she got from Duo. And they didn't want to *hurt* her Duo. In fact, quite the opposite. They seemed worried about him. Still, she should follow, and watch.  
  
pt. 2  
  
Duo woke up disoriented. He was staring at someone's chest. Someone's smooth, *very* well-defined chest. And there was a gentle pressure on his back, holding him in place. He must've alerted the other person, because he shifted to look down at Duo. Cobalt blue eyes stared at him from beneath dark, messy bangs. *Man is he hot!*  
Heero removed his hand from Duo's back. Brushing Duo's hair out of his face, he leaned down to kiss him. "'Morning, love. How are you feeling?"  
Duo frowned considering the question.   
/Duo?\  
"My head hurts, and so does my arm. Other than that, I seem to be okay. I mean, I'm not missing any major body parts. What happened?"  
"Your gundam went down on an island. We found you curled against a tree. You left arm needed stitches, but nothing serious. You didn't wake up at all, but thankfully, you don't have a concussion."  
/One-eye and Light-angel came. Took you. I worried\  
"Oh. Rings a bell, sorta." Duo laid his head against Heero's chest. "This feels good."  
Heero pulled Duo closer to him, and buried his head in Duo's hair. "Sure does." Some one knocked on the door.  
"Heero? Duo?"  
"Quatre, go away!" they replied in unison.  
Quatre giggled, "breakfast is done. Hurry up, or it'll get cold."  
Duo started to get out of bed. "Coming."  
"No, we're not." Heero said, pulling Duo back into bed.  
"Heero, let go! I'm hungry! He-chan, c'mon!"  
"Hn."  
Quatre giggled again. "C'mon, Heero, breakfast is getting cold." When he got no reply, he sing-songed, "We have chocolate chip pan~cakes!"  
The door opened with a rush, and Quatre found himself being glomped by one, Duo Maxwell.  
"Chocolate chip pancakes? Man, let's go!"  
/Duo-love? What are choclate pancakes?\  
/Chocolate chip pancakes. They're a breakfast food. They taste really good.\  
/Oh. Can I come? Want to try.\  
/Oh, good Lord, no Shin, the others would *freak!* Just, stay out of sight, okay?\  
/For always?\ she sounded hurt.  
/No, not for always, just until we figure something out, 'kay.\  
"Duo? Hello, anybody home?" Quatre was waving his hand in front of Duo's face."  
"Huh? Oh, yeah, just a little distracted."  
  
  
~*~*~  
  
Treize was sitting in his office, waiting for Lady Une's reports. Curled sleepily on his shoulder was Thorn, his little bronze fire-lizard friend. The poor thing was extremely tired, as he, Lightning, Striker, and Aster had all been playing a game of tag.  
Oz's experiments with lizard and bat DNA had been successful. The little fire-lizards were intelligent, telepathic with their friends, could teleport (or go between, as the lizards called it) and could breathe fire. The only downfall Treize could see was the extreme emotional bond between the fire lizards and their human partners.   
The emotional responsibilities were more than the average soldier could handle. To solve this problem, Lt. Noin had been put in charge of training the soldiers who did "impress" a fire-lizard. They were becoming a distinct group of soldiers within the specials.   
Still, the military benefits far outweighed the drawbacks.  
They were perfect for spy missions. They were small enough to get into small places, and could show their human partners what was happening at that exact moment in time.  
They were also excellent bodyguards...well, at least for their friends. And they made excellent "guard dogs." And immediate couriers, with no chance of the message being tapped.  
And they hadn't even explored their full potential.  
Someone knocked on the door. Thorn lifted his head and chirped in the direction of the door. Treize got a picture of Lady Une and her bronze, Striker, in his mind.  
"Come in, Une."  
The door opened and Lady Une, with Striker on her shoulder, stepped through.  
"Treize-sama, here are the reports on the latest gundam attacks, as well as the data on the new MS designs. Also, here's the book you wanted to borrow."  
"Thank you Une, this'll be all for-oh, wait a minute, any word on our missing queen? She is our only fertile female.   
"No. All of the greens, browns, and blues are out searching the beaches, but she could be anywhere by now."  
"Hm. Damn. We need to find her before she rises to mate.  
"I'm sure we will. She certainly can't mate by herself, now can she?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Shinigami was curious. She knew, and understood, why she couldn't be with her Duo-love all the time. She agreed with his reasoning. She didn't know why, but she did. But he said the others would probably "freak out" if they knew about her. She figured that freaking out wouldn't be a good thing.  
But she was still curious about her Duo-love's friends.  
Right now, that curiosity was aimed at the Chinese boy . That's why she was sitting on the window sill outside of his bedroom.   
Smiles-never was not there, so this was the perfect opportunity. Shinigami took a deep breath and went between.  
It was really cold between, but it did not bother the fire-lizard. There was no sound except for the beating of her wings, and no light except for the light in her eyes.   
Three seconds later, she was in Smiles-never's room. Awed, she took a look around. There was stuff everywhere! And it was *organized.* She couldn't help herself-she had to see everything. Into the dresser drawers, and shelves she went.  
Then something caught her eye, or rather, her nose. Long sweet smelling sticks things. Shin didn't know it, but they were Wufei's incense sticks. What she did know was that she wanted them.  
Quickly, she glanced around. Nope, nothing coming. Gently, she took her package in her mouth and claws and went between.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Five boys were all staring at each other. Well, Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei were staring at Duo, said pilot looked astonished, and Heero looked pissed and protective.  
"Look, Wufei, you know me, and you know I wouldn't lie and I told you that I didn't *steal* your stuff."  
"Duo, I found my ring when I went to borrow your Kansas CD. It was on *your* dresser. Besides, Duo, everyone knows you're a thief."  
"I was a thief. I don't *need* to steal anymore!"  
"And you are the only one who could manage to sneak into our rooms and steal our stuff!"  
"Wufei," began Duo, trying very hard to control his temper and failing, "on L2, I stole out of necessity. I only stole from people who could afford it. Why would I steal your stuff?"  
"Duo, I'm missing three packs of incense, and I *was* missing a very important ring until I found it in *your* room. Trowa is missing his dog whistle, wallet, and lion statuette. Quatre's missing some pictures, a box of tea bags, and a CD."  
"Why the hell would I bother to steal that stuff, when I could probably *borrow* it. Hell, I don't even *like* ballet!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Shinigami was staring at the boys. Why would they not stop yelling at *her* Duo-love. Blue-eyes was angry at that as well, she could tell. Smiles-never, One-eye, and Light-angel were accusing Duo of stealing their stuff.  
Judging by what she picked up in Duo's mind, stealing stuff was bad. She didn't know what stealing was, exactly, but she was certain her Duo-love wouldn't *ever* do anything wrong. And he *never* lied. He even told her so.  
/Duo?\  
Duo's eyes flickered up to her quickly. She was proud of herself. Finally, she was learning to project words, instead of just pictures and emotions.'  
/Duo-love? Daijoubu ka?\  
/Yeah, don't worry 'bout me.\  
"Maxwell, are you even paying attention?" Duo's head jerked and Wufei scowled.   
"No, I wasn't. your accusations make no sense whatsoever. Maybe you just lost'em, or somethin'."  
"I did not lose my incense!"   
In her hiding spot, Shin hissed silently.  
"Well I didn't steal it!"  
Wufei lost his temper, and lunged at Duo. Luckily (although whether for Duo or   
Wufei it was unclear), Quatre and Trowa restrained Wufei. Heero stepped protectively in front of Duo.  
Shinigami decided she couldn't take it anymore.  
  
pt. 2  
  
Quatre was beginning to get really, really annoyed. Why wouldn't Duo just confess and return their stuff?  
Then Wufei lunged, and there was no time for thinking, just reacting. He and Trowa barely managed to keep Wufei back. When Wufei was restrained, Heero stepped up to him and glared.   
"What the hell was that for?"  
Suddenly, Quatre felt a sudden, violent increase in the amount of protective anger in the room.   
"No, Shinigami, don't!" Duo yelled, lunging forward to intercept a tiny shrieking gold streak headed straight for Wufei. Unfortunately, his trajectory caused him to crash into Trowa. The result was not pretty: Duo was on his stomach, trying his hardest to restrain the writhing gold bullet in his arms. Trowa was sprawled over Duo's legs, and was somehow tangled up in Duo's braid. Trowa had accidentally tried to prevent them from falling, and had dragged Quatre down with them. The poor blonde had accidentally pulled the potted plant off the table, and now all four of them were covered in dirt and plant matter.  
"Shh...its alright, Shin-chan. Yeah, I agree. Smiles-never is a baka."  
The little...dragon? was desperately trying to get out of Duo's grip. Her eyes were a vicious red, streaked with yellow. The object of its attentions was Wufei, who was slowly backing out of the room. One glance from Heero was enough to stop Wufei.  
Eventually, Duo got the little creature calmed down to the point where she wasn't going to try ripping Wufei's jugular out. When Duo released her, she climbed up to his shoulder and buried her face in Duo's now loose hair. The others all stared at him.  
"Duo?" asked Quatre.  
"Hmm...." Replied Duo, messing with the dragon on his shoulder.  
"There's a...dragon on your shoulder."  
"A fire-lizard, actually."  
"Fire-lizard?"  
"Yah! Her name is Shinigami."  
"What else?" asked Quatre, still in a state of shock. The other pilots were no better.  
"Duo?" began Heero, "Why do you have a...fire-lizard on your shoulder?"  
Duo grinned. "'cause she doesn't have anywhere else to perch."  
"Are you being deliberately annoying, or is it just me?"  
"Yes."  
Duo and Trowa picked themselves up off the floor. Duo had crossed over to where Heero was standing.  
Curious now, Wufei asked, "where did she come from?"  
"Some Oz lab. Remember that mission where the Deathscythe was practically obliterated?"  
"Duo? You're going to have to be more specific than that."  
Duo glared at Heero. "The one with the weapons lab. Anyway, when I was stuck on the island, I found Shin here. Or rather, she found me."  
Wufei was eyeing the little dragon. He was paying special attention to her tiny, yet sharp claws and canines. "Maxwell, remind me to never attack you again."  
"Anytime, Wufei, anytime."  
Shinigami turned her head to look at Wufei. Duo got an evil look on his face. He held up his arm and Shin flowed from his shoulder to his forearm. She made a crooning noise deep in her throat.  
Wufei began backing away slowly. Duo smirked. Shin turned towards here and crooned a question.  
"They were accusing me of stealing their stuff, because Wufei found his missing ring in my room." Shin cocked her head at him. Duo turned to face Wufei. "What's the ring look like?"  
"It's a silver band with an oriental dragon etched into it. The eye is a ruby."  
Shin returned to Duo's shoulder and buried her face in his hair. Duo turned to look at her.  
"You did what! Shinigami! Oh, man!"  
"Duo? What did she do?"  
"Shinigami...umm....took your...stuff."  
"Can you get it back?"  
"Yeah, come on. Shin-chan? Where'd yak hide it all?"  
Shinigami launched herself from Duo's shoulder and led the boys up to Duo's room. Once there, she pried open a board in the floor. When the pilots looked down they found all of their stuff, in a neat, orderly pile.  
Wufei got his incense. Trowa got his whistle, wallet, and lion. Quatre retrieved his pictures and CD.  
"Duo," Wufei said, "I must apologize. I should have known that you wouldn't lie about something like that." He turned to go upstairs, "But keep that klepto lizard away from my stuff!"  
"Yeah," added Quatre, blushing, "you never lie about stuff like that."  
Trowa nodded sheepishly.  
  
pt. 3  
  
The pilots adjusted to Shinigami much better than Duo expected. It took a while. Shinigami couldn't quite grasp the concept of Other People's Stuff, which annoyed the hell out of Wufei. Not that Duo ever tried really hard to teach her, it was just too damn funny. Now, it was standard procedure to ask Duo to ask Shin if she had taken their stuff. Nine times out of ten, she had.  
But Shinigami was full of surprises, and not all of them as inconvenient as her fascination with other people's belongings. Shinigami was capable of communicating not only with Duo, but the other pilots as well. Like the time when Trowa walked into the kitchen and had a sudden, overwhelming urge to have some chocolate chip cookies. Shinigami had been sitting on the cookie jar and crooning pitifully  
And she seemed to pick up Duo's knack for mechanical things. This little talent had been discovered while Duo was working on Deathscythe. Heero had been helping him, by handing him whatever tools he needed (hey, perfect opportunity for Duo-watching). Heero got a call from Dr. J and had left to see what the old man wanted. Duo, not realizing that Heero left, asked him for a screwdriver. Duo was surprised when he received the screwdriver, not from Heero, but from Shin.  
Also surprising was the way the other pilots took to Shin (including the reluctant Wufei). Even though he denied it vehemently, his affection for the golden lizard was quite obvious. Especially since the time Quatre caught him letting Shinigami have a drink of his tea.  
~*~*~  
  
Duo was lazing around in the living room reading his manga (it wasn't often they got a break from the fighting, after all) when he heard the noise. It sounded like it was coming from the back yard. He knew that sound. He had heard it only a few times before, but he had it memorized. Heero Yuy was laughing. Not that homicidal maniac, omae o korosu, time-to-blow-these-Oz-bastards-to-hell laugh, but the rare, jeez-this-is more-fun-than-I-ever-thought-it-could-be laugh.  
Duo crossed over to the window. Then his lower jaw landed on the floor. Heero was in the backyard with Shinigami. He had secured a small, foam ball and would throw it into the woods or a bush or some other small space, and Shinigami would chase after it. Sure, Duo *knew* that Heero adored Shinigami, but he never, not once in his life, imagined she'd ever be able to get him to play *catch. *  
Duo decided that the opportunity was too good to miss. Duo left the window and dashed upstairs. On the way up he ran into Quatre. Literally.  
"Quatre! I'm sorry, are you alright?"  
"I'm fine Duo, just help me up."  
"Hey, Quatre, where's your video camera?"  
Quatre got a very suspicious look on his face.  
"Why?"  
"'Cause! Just trust me."  
"Now I'm more inclined to trust you less." But Quatre still got the video camera for him. Duo took the camera, grabbed Quatre's arm, and led them downstairs.  
"Duo, where are we going?"  
"Just follow me, and be quiet." Duo led them out through the side door. Quatre gasped aloud when he saw what had Duo so excited. Trowa and Wufei had joined Heero, and now the three pilots were playing 'keep away' with Shinigami. Much to her dismay, Heero would throw the ball to Wufei, but by the time she reached him, either Heero or Trowa had it. Even going between didn't help her.  
Duo turned the camera on. Then, with a super evil grin on his face, he began narrating.   
"Here we have an extremely rare video opportunity. A perfect soldier has emerged from behind his laptop the join a unibang clown and a justice fanatic in a moment of relaxation. Our subjects appear to be playing 'keep away' with the golden kleptomaniac.  
"Generally a recluse, the perfect solder had never before been seen doing anything as trivial as *playing.* In fact, all previous records show the perfect soldier to have only three facial expressions: pissed off, annoyed, and Death Glare (tm)."  
"Also in an unusual situation," Quatre began, taking over the narration, "the unibanged clown is, for once, acting like a clown. Generally silent, we are lucky to have this opportunity to get an actual audio record of his laugh.  
Duo interrupted at this point, "also acting out-of-character, the justice fanatic is *gasp* not ranting about justice. Good viewers, we are truly blessed this day to capture such rare...footage...uh...oh..."  
Quatre looked at Duo with a worried look on his face. Then he looked up to see Heero, Wufei, and Trowa coming towards them. After a quick glance to each other, the two pilots decided to make a strategic retreat.   
They didn't get very far.  
Duo found himself on the ground and at the nonexistent mercy of Trowa and Wufei. Heero had stolen his video camera.  
"And here is a shot of the infamous braided baka, having his wrists tied together with his braid. And now, the justice ranter is preparing to hang him from a tree."  
"Shinigami! Help me! Chang Wufei, you put me down this instant. Help Me!"  
"No, Shinigami," said Heero, "you were playing with *us* and that means you're on our side!" Shinigami considered this and decided to perch on Heero's shoulder while he taped Duo.  
Quatre was standing in the background, laughing hysterically.  
"TRAITOR! Wufei, put me down!"  
"Sorry, Maxwell, but justice must be served."  
"Trowa? Get the hell out of that tree! What the hell are you going to do to me!"  
"Simple, Duo, we're going to hang you from the tree."  
"Justice, pure and simple."  
"How the hell is hanging me from a tree by my *ankles* serving justice!"  
"It is the will of Nataku."  
"Wufei, your damn rope is cutting off my circulation!"  
By now, Quatre wasn't just laughing, he was on the ground holding onto his stomach, desperately trying to catch his breath.  
"You're not off the hook yet, Quatre."  
Quatre's facial expression changed immediately from highly amused to scared as heck.  
"Wh-what are you going to do to me?"  
Having finished hanging Duo, Trowa took the camera from Heero. "And here we have the braided baka's accomplice, the blue-eyed bishounen." Wufei and Heero, leaving Duo hanging from the tress, bracketed the blonde between them. "Normally a very clean individual, the blue-eyed bishounen abhors mud."  
Quatre's eyes went even wider. "No. No, don't."  
"Let's see what happens when the perfect soldier and the...justice fanatic drag the blue-eyed bishounen to the lake." The four pilots moved to the lake, where Heero and Wufei gleefully dumped Quatre in the muddiest place they could find. When they finally allowed him to get up, he was covered from head to toe in mud and plant matter.  
They heard laughter. Looking up, they saw Duo coming towards them. Shinigami was perched on his shoulder.  
"How did you get loose?"  
Duo grinned and Shin crowed. "Shinigami has her uses."  
"Aa."  
"Hey, Quatre, it looks like you need a bath!"  
Quatre glared at Duo. "At least they didn't tie me up with my own hair!"  
Duo smirked, "yeah, but at least I don't have a trout hanging out of my shorts."  
Quatre's eyes went really wide, and his cheeks went *really* red.  
"Duo!"  
"Actually, Duo, I think it's a bass."  
"HEERO!"  
  
pt. 4   
  
Shinigami was sunning herself on the beach. It was one of the few things she enjoyed still. She was...restless, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. She'd been unable to deal with hanging around at the safehouse all day, and had finally   
fled to the beaches to ease her nerves.   
Down the beach a movement caught her eye. Another fire-lizard! Well, now that she was able to get a closer look, she saw that it was four other fire-lizards. One was a brown, and the other three were bronzes. They, like her, were sunning themselves on the beach.  
The other fire-lizards turned and saw her. They rose into the air and flew towards her. She suddenly felt very shy, and *very* uneasy.   
/Who you?\ asked one of the bronzes.  
/Am Shinigami. You?\  
/Am called Thorn. These Striker and Lightning. The Brown is Astar.\  
/Where from?\ asked the bronze Lightning.  
/Safehouse. You?\ she answered.  
/Estate. Where safehouse?\ replied Astar.  
/Can't tell.\  
/Why?\ asked Striker.  
/Duo-love says.\  
/Who that?\ asked Thorn.  
/Friend. Who's yours?\  
/Mine Treize-sama. Striker's Lady Une, Lightning's Zechs-san, and Astar Noin-chan.\  
/Don't know them. Gotta go. Duo-love calling. Bye.\  
The four male fire-lizards watched as Shinigami made a hasty retreat. They obviously made her nervous.   
/Now what we do?\  
/That easy Astar. We tell Treize-sama.\  
/Aa.\  
  
~*~*~  
  
Duo entered the living room and stared at Wufei. Wufei and Quatre were watching television. Heero and Trowa were out on a mission together.  
Quatre sighed when he saw Duo. For about 5 or 6 days now, Duo had been agitatedly prowling the house, looking for someone to pick a fight with. It had gotten to the point where the others were avoiding him like the plague. None of the other pilots could figure out what the hell was bothering their friend. They'd been waiting for it to blow over, but were rapidly losing patience.   
"Now you've done it, Chang," Quatre whispered to Wufei. Wufei turned and saw Duo glaring at him.  
And gulped.  
"C-can I help you, Duo?"  
"Wufei," Duo began in that overly calm, sweet voice that meant *big* trouble, "where is my Kansas CD?"  
"I gave it to Yuy. I couldn't find you, and Heero said he'd give it to you."  
"So. Now my CD is on a mission?"  
"..."  
"ANSWER ME DAMN YOU! IS MY CD ON A MISSION WITH HEERO?"  
"Yes." Duo stared at Wufei a few more minutes and stormed out of the living room. Wufei let out the breath he'd been holding.  
"Kisama, He'd been moody lately."  
"You're telling me, Wufei."  
"Where do you think he went?"  
"As long as he's away from here, who cares?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
  
Treize 'listened' to Thorn's report with a growing sense of foreboding. Sure, they had *finally* found the queen lizard, but the circumstances were less than ideal. And to make matters worse, Treize couldn't help but feel he was missing something important. And something obvious, dammit.  
They needed to find this "Duo-love" character. Maybe convince him to join Oz. That would keep him under control.   
/Thorn dear? Can you remember anything else? Like the queen's name or anything?\  
/Think so. Her name Sinakamy.\  
/Sinakamy?\  
What an odd name. Why did it sound so familiar...Sort of like...  
Shit.  
Oh, shit were they in trouble.  
She had impressed to a Gundam pilot. And, according to Thorn's report, she would be going into heat before too long.  
And how the hell did the pilot get his hands on the fire-lizard? Oh yeah, there had been a battle when the eggs hatched. Which was what allowed her to escape, anyway.  
Life was really unfair.  
Sighing, Treize summoned Zechs, Une, and Noin.  
They were *not* going to be very happy with him.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Heero and Trowa returned late from their mission. Both pilots wanted nothing more than to get in the safehouse and curl up besides their respective kois and sleep. Then Trowa saw the safehouse.  
"Shit."  
"What's the matter, Trowa?"  
"Lights on in the safehouse."  
"You don't think it's..." Trowa nodded. "I really didn't want to deal with this tonight."  
"Heero, we're going to have to find out what's bothering him, and deal with it." Heero glared at him, "What if this...moodiness starts to affect his piloting? These mood swings cannot be healthy for him, what if they're symptoms of some...mental instability?"  
Heero glared at him, then nodded. "Do you really want to be the one to confront him on it?"  
"No."  
Both pilots approached the safehouse carefully. If Duo was sleeping, they wanted to leave him that way. Heero opened the door slowly.   
Duo was curled up in the recliner, sleeping.  
"Need any help?" Trowa whispered. Heero shook his head. "Then I'm going upstairs. Good luck."  
"Thanks." Trowa left. Heero turned his attention back to his koi. Duo looked so innocent when he was asleep. Then Heero saw the tears resting on Duo's cheek. Heero sighed and looked around for Shinigami. She was curled up on the couch pillows. Heero reached down and carefully picked Duo up and proceeded to their bedroom.  
Heero set Duo in the bed and considered going down for Shinigami. He was too tired, though. He took off his shoes and stretched out next to Duo. He was asleep within five minutes.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"You want us to WHAT?"  
"Kidnap Duo Maxwell. He's impressed our little gold fire-lizard. Surely your own fire-lizards told you"  
"Kidnap a GUNDAM PILOT? How the heck are we going to manage that?""Lady Une, please calm down. The gundam pilots don't even know this estate exists. We'd bring Maxwell here. They'd look for him in all of our bases and prisons. My security is good enough to keep Maxwell in. Especially if one of us is with him constantly. If we could manage it, I'd say just snatch the lizard, but they're impossible to keep in on place. She'd just go between to get back to Duo."  
"It's too bad we can't just repeat the experiment."  
"True, but all of the research data went down with the base, and Dr. Roberts was killed by, we *think,* Yuy."  
"Treize?" Zechs voiced hesitantly, "What about the fire-lizard?"  
"Yes, Zechs?"  
"What about her? She'll come with him, which is what we want."  
"Aren't you worried about her telling the other pilots?"  
"Not really, Zechs. The lizards tend to avoid anyone who isn't their chosen friend.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Duo was sitting on the loveseat, staring straight ahead. He was sitting perfectly straight, with his arms crossed over his chest and Shinigami on his shoulder, looking similarly pissed. Heero was sitting next to him, but wasn't touching him at all. In fact, he was sitting as far from Duo as possible. Trowa was sitting on the recliner. Quatre was on the floor cross-legged in front of him. Wufei was sitting directly across from Duo.  
Nobody was making a sound. The silence was beginning to get to the pilots.   
"Duo?" asked Quatre.  
No answer.  
"Duo? We only want to know what's going on. Maybe we could fix it."  
Still no answer, although Heero cringed, and Wufei tried backing away.  
"Duo, please talk to me. We need to know what's going on. Your mood swings are really starting to get annoying." Behind him, Trowa winced.  
"Annoying? Annoying?! Is that all I am to you?!"  
"Now Duo, please calm down that's not what I meant at all."  
"No! I will not calm down! I'm trying to fix Deathscythe, and you all call me in here to tell me I'm annoying!" On his shoulder, Shinigami was getting similarly upset.  
"Duo..." Heero broke in, hoping to calm him down. Big mistake.  
Duo turned towards Heero. "Don't talk to me Yuy! You were in on this as well. Obviously, you must think I'm annoying as well. And I thought you *loved* me!" Duo got up from his seat on the loveseat. "Since I'd hate to annoy you, I suppose I should *leave.*" Duo stormed out of the living room, followed by a highly agitated fire-lizard.  
The remaining pilots all stared at each other in shock. Obviously, their tactics in approaching Duo about his current moodiness had not been the way to go. But what else were they supposed to do? Duo was rarely pissed, and never this badly or this...childish.  
"Geez, he's worse than my sisters on PMS."  
Heero stared at Quatre.  
"What? It's not like I said that PMS is his problem, only that he's worse than my sisters on PMS."  
"But what if that's his problem?"  
"Yuy, are you insane? Maxwell is a boy! How the hell could he suffer from PMS?"  
"Well, Wufei, maybe not _precisely_ PMS, but Shinigami *is* female...." began Heero.  
"And their emotions do seem to affect each other..." continued Trowa.  
They all paused to consider this.  
"Aren't *we* going to be having some fun."   
"Quatre? Are you being *sarcastic?*"  
"Nooooo."  
"Quatre, you're starting to act like Duo."  
"He is *not!*"  
"No need to be defensive, Trowa. Anyway, Quatre, what do you think we should do? After all, you do have 29 sisters."  
"Well...the first thing we should do is send Heero after Duo, before he gets into trouble."  
Heero got up. "I'll be back."  
  
  
tbc...  



End file.
